WEEK 1 STUDY GUIDE

The following questions are intended to help you reflect on your reading of the book, The Prodigal
God. They are also intended to form the basis of discussion questions for use in our Gospel
Communities. The leader should select which questions are most appropriate, and take the
initiative to take the group in the direction they feel the Spirit is leading them.

A NOTE ON WHAT A GOSPEL COMMUNITY IS

The reason our small groups are called a ‘gospel community’ and not a ‘community group’ or ‘bible
study’ is because we want to be absolutely clear about their purpose. Our groups are to be places in
which the gospel is brought to bare on the sins and situations of our life, so that the gospel would
be believed and lived. As such, we are not just interested in studying the Bible, but seek to discover
and being changed by the new layers and insights we find in the gospel. We are not just interested
in talking in the abstract, but applying the gospel to each of our lives. Am I greedy? I need to know
Christ’s generosity in giving up his riches for me (2 Cor 8:9). Am I controlling? I need to know that
Christ give up controlling his life to bring me life, and that therefore I can trust him to control my
life (Phil 2:5-11). Am I anxious? I need to know that if God did the greater thing, in giving up his
son for us, will he not do the lesser thing in giving us all things we need (Rom 8:32). Bringing the
gospel to bare on our lives does not just happen in a ‘classroom’ or a ‘discussion group,’ but
happens the same as it happened for Jesus disciples: on the journey, over meals, during recreation,
and after synagogue (i.e. church). Therefore we are a gospel community, and seek to do life together
so that our brothers and sisters would see where we have stopped believing the gospel, and be able
to bring it to bare on our life. Oh how we need this!

INTRODUCTION

Read Luke 15

1. Tim Keller says that this book is written ‘not just for seekers’ but for ‘lifelong Christian
believers’ as well (p. xi). Can you recall a time when you have been so ‘struck and turned
around by a fresh apprehension of the Christian message’ that you’ve felt yourself to be
almost ‘re-converted’?

2. As Tim Keller heard teaching on this parable he felt he had discovered the ‘secret heart of
Christianity’ (p. xiii). What, for you, is at the heart of Christianity? Why do you think
Keller thinks Luke 15 conveys this?

3. In what sense might it be dangerous to label the parable: ‘The Parable of the Prodigal Son’
(p. xiv)? In what ways might this challenge our preconceived ideas of who is lost? Which
brother do you more easily relate to today?

4. What does it mean to be a prodigal? Why do you think Keller choose to title his book, The
Prodigal God?
CHAPTER 1: THE PEOPLE AROUND JESUS

Read Luke 15

1. How does appreciating the historical setting (verses 1-3) of the parable change the way
you read verses 11-32? That is, who are the three people/groups in verses 1-3 and in what
ways do they represent the three people in verses 11-32?

2. Which audience before Jesus is the parable directed toward in verse 3 (the tax collectors,
or the Pharisees)?

3. What are the ‘sins’ of the

a. younger brother; and

b. elder brother?

4. ‘Jesus purpose [in telling this parable] is not to warm our hearts but to shatter our categories.’ (p.
10) How does he challenge what nearly everyone has ever thought about:

a. God
b. sin
c. salvation?
5. Look up the following stories about Jesus and consider his attitude to the younger and
elder brother types:

Younger brother type Elder brother type

Luke 7 Jesus attitude to the sexual outcast: Jesus attitude to the religious person:

John 3-4 Jesus attitude to the racial outcast: Jesus attitude to the religious person:

Luke 19 Jesus attitude to the political outcast: Jesus attitude to the religious person:

How does this confirm Matthew 21:31?

6. ‘Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible believing, religious
people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect… If the
preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners [people who come to church] do not
have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that
Jesus did’ (p. 15-16). Do you think the church (which is you) has lost its way and forgotten
its mission today? Do you think the church has a firm and clear grasp on the gospel as a
message for the religious as well as the irreligious? In what ways do you need to repent
and follow Jesus on mission and in ministry? What areas of your life are too similar to the
elder brother?

7. ‘If our churches aren’t appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than
we’d like to think.’ (p. 16) List the six most influential things that you believe is causing the
church not to reach out to the younger brothers of the world today?